Fanny Elsler Austrian ballet dancer. Date of Birth: 23.06.1810 Country: Austria

Biography of Fanny Elssler

Fanny Elssler was an Austrian ballet dancer born and raised in Vienna. She came from a family with a musical background, as her grandfather and father served as secretary and chamberlain to the composer Joseph Haydn. Fanny made her first appearance on stage at the age of seven and quickly gained success due to her natural talent and liveliness.

At the age of seventeen, Fanny traveled to Italy where she performed Spanish folk dances on the Neapolitan stage. Her fame as a dancer led to an invitation to join the Paris Opera Ballet, where she achieved worldwide recognition and embarked on triumphant tours across Europe and America. Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and London all applauded Fanny and her talented sister Theresa. According to her biographer, Fanny Elssler's career was a continuous series of triumphs wherever she performed.

In 1843, Fanny was awarded an honorary doctorate in choreographic studies by the University of Oxford. She captivated audiences with the vivacity of her characters, the passion of their movements, and the rebelliousness of their spirits. Choreographer August Bournonville, who witnessed the performances of both Fanny Elssler and the famous Marie Taglioni on the London stage at the same time, noted that Fanny possessed a unique talent of a different poetic shade. Fanny was described as a joyous and lively performer who executed delightful petite pas with such cunning that it made hearts tremble.

Fanny did not adhere to the academic canons on stage. As French writer Theophile Gautier noted in an article, she danced with her whole body, from the tips of her hair to the tips of her fingers, creating a technique of beautiful small movements. She was considered unparalleled in dances such as the cachucha, mazurka, krakowiak, tarantella, and the Russian dance, which she performed in a scarlet sarafan and a diamond-studded headdress.

It was rumored that Emperor Nicholas I, who had met Fanny Elssler in Vienna, invited her to perform in St. Petersburg. In 1848, she arrived unexpectedly, which surprised the management of the imperial theaters. However, the emperor's desire to see the dancer in a court performance in Tsarskoye Selo played a significant role. Fanny Elssler presented her famous cachucha during the intermission between Russian and French performances. The audience warmly welcomed her, and her fate as a guest performer was decided. For three seasons, Elssler performed on the stages of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Initially, Fanny chose to perform "Giselle," but it was evident during the dances of the second act that she had taken on a role that did not suit her, especially considering her age. However, her next performance, Jean Perrot's ballet "The Artist's Dream," staged by her in Russia for the first time, and particularly "Lisa and Colin" (the dancer gave the undervalued ballet a second life, later called "Folly Precaution"), showcased her sparkling and exuberant talent. The forty-year-old performer made the audience believe she was only sixteen. Reports on her first performance praised her exceptional muscle strength, describing them as steel-like, with her feet gripping the theater's stage. Her strength allowed her to perform the most difficult steps with exceptional clarity and precision.

Fanny's popularity continued to grow with each performance in Russia, to the point where tickets for her shows were in high demand. In 1848, Perrot revived "Esmeralda" specifically for her. She immediately established a rapport with Russian performers. Director S. P. Solovyov remarked, "Many European celebrities from the artistic world visited the Moscow theater, but none of them became as close to our artists as the famous dancer Fanny Elssler."

Fanny arrived in Russia when she was nearing the end of her career. Nevertheless, Russian audiences and critics in the 1850s were enthralled by her. Her heroines were passionately loved, suffered, and fought for happiness while maintaining their femininity, charm, and beauty. Fanny Elssler herself was considered a beautiful woman, and many contemporaries recognized this. One review described her as follows:

"Tall and extraordinarily slim, she had legs as perfect as Diana's... Her head is small, like an ancient statue of the Medici Venus, and is connected by the most delicate and light lines to her luxuriously white shoulders. Her eyes are full of attractive charm, and her perfectly shaped mouth has a delightful ironic smile."

Her appearance, which echoed the image of her characters, became a standard of beauty and a subject of imitation. Nature generously endowed the ballerina. She seemed to never tire, her breathing remained steady even after repeating a difficult encore. She possessed extraordinary flexibility and agility despite her somewhat "plump figure." Her free and uninhibited movements mesmerized the audience.

"Watching her, you feel a certain lightness, and wings grow on you," noted a reviewer.

Another characteristic of Fanny's heroines was their lack of tragic inevitability, unlike the Sylphide in Taglioni's ballet. They did not appear helpless in the face of fate or life's failures. Fanny embodied this theme uniquely when it came to love.

With her exceptional pantomime skills, she reached the heights of tragic art in conveying various emotions. However, as expressive as her acting was, her talent truly shone on the ballet stage. Therefore, when she participated in a dramatic production of E. Scribe's play "Olga, the Russian Orphan," where her role was without words, she did not achieve success.

Whether performing a character role or a concert number, Fanny always remained in character, even when bowing to the audience. She never broke this rule. Only once, during her farewell performance in Moscow, while dancing as Esmeralda, the renowned dancer took an unexpected liberty. In the scene where the character is supposed to form her lover's name from letters, she wrote "Moscow" instead of "Phoebus," then fell to her knees and kissed the beloved letters. The response was overwhelming: applause and tears. This gesture from the great ballerina became her declaration of love for the Russian audience.

After her final performance, Fanny Elssler remained connected to Russia and maintained regular correspondence with her Moscow acquaintances. In the chorus of poetic enthusiasm evoked by her artistry, there were lines from E. P. Rostopchina:

"Do not fly away, charming creature!
Do not leave this enchanted land!
Stay with us, the delight of our hearts,
Do not fly away!..."

Even after leaving Russia, until the end of her days, Fanny Elssler remained tied to the country and its people.